IHN gives homeless a home

What is the image of homelessness? A man sleeping under a bridge? A woman pushing her belongings in a shopping cart? How about a mom and dad who work and have young children going to school?

Forty percent of the people in this country who are homeless are members of families with children. We know this right here in Lorain County from the participation in the local Wellington area Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) program. It is made up of the two host churches: Wellington United Church of Christ and Wellington United Methodist Church, with Brighton and Rochester Methodist churches as support churches.

The local congregations provide a place to sleep and eat for up to 14 people; without this assistance, mothers and fathers and young children could be sleeping inside their vehicle, or even outside in a tent. Imagine how difficult it would be to find housing, and hope, in such a situation.

But did you know your IHN group is one of more than 140 Family Promise Networks around the country? Nearly 5,000 congregations participate, more than 120,000 volunteers, and last year the IHN program and its sister affiliates around the country served 30,000 people, men, women and children. Sixty percent of the individuals served were under the age of 18.

September marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of Family Promise as a national organization. Contact your local churches, or key support persons -- Elaine Holt and Cindy Storrow in Wellington or Kathleen Willbond of Brighton UMC -- for ways you can become involved locally. And to find out about the national organization and efforts to address the needs of homeless families across the country, go to www.familypromise.org.

There will be a training session for new volunteers before the next local hosting date, scheduled for Nov. 23 through Nov. 30, including Thanksgiving Day. All volunteers who come in contact with the IHN clients are required to attend a three-hour training session.

Once the training is completed, there are many ways to volunteer, and help the homeless clients served by IHN. Volunteers cook and provide meals, help organize evening activities for families such as a movie, just playing games with a child, or even washing bed linens and towels at the end of the week. Each night the clients are housed in a local church, two volunteers are required to spend the night in the church as well to assist them in the event of an emergency.

There are many opportunities, but what IHN provides its volunteers is a chance to see a child sleeping safely, after a nutritious meal, in privacy with his family and siblings, knowing there will be the same available the next night. No child should have to worry about where they will spend the night and even in a town as small as Wellington, volunteers are making sure homeless children are having sweet dreams.